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Well here goes the beginnings of my first build. I am starting with 2mm matte board and overlaying it with fiberglass. This is also the first time I've worked with fiberglass so this might turn out nasty....

This first pic is the sub-helmet with the first application of resin. Only the front half has the fiber and resin applied.

Visor is now over-layed, glued and drying in preparation for glassing tomorrow. Once the visor band is glassed in, I'll start working in the dome and correcting some of the trouble area along the brow band.

Yeah, the dome is a bit of a pain. I got mine done out of cardboard, but it was a hell of a job cutting it all out. Took two days to glue it all together, having to wait for one part to dry before attaching the next. Don't think I'll do that for my next one.

Made the mistake of bondoing the cheeks before fiberglassing though, so now I got a blush going.

After several frustrating attempts with the cardboard cutouts, I have made a dome form that I will fab the fiberglass directly on. The added benefit is that if it works, I'll have a ready made form to make future helmets with. If it works...

Here are two shots of the 1st layer of glass. The shiny undercoating is the foil I covered the form with. I suppose it is part of the helmet now.... the upside being that the tin foil will help to repel alien mind-rays, always an important part of one's defensive array.

I was planning on using fiberglass over the cardboard (i'm using cereal boxes because i'm cheap! ) to help strengthen it more.

Right now I've just started the dome with the WOF templates and it's not shaping up correctly. Does anyone have any suggestions on how i might be able to construct the dome differently?

One thing i've thought of is that since i already have the two cross-pieces across where the dome will go forming a + on top, i could add more, so I have 8 ribs for the dome, and then more so I have 12, and so on. Then on top of those layer the fiberglass?

I couldn't get the dome to shape up like I wanted so I set up the dome base with the two cross pieced and glued in styrofoam as filler. I then filled in the remaining shape with Crayola brand air-drying clay. After the clay was dry I just fiberglassed over the form.

If you go this route, make sure you undersize the form by the thickness of the fiberglass, otherwise you'll have an ill fit to deal with. And I would suggest covering the form with something other than aluminum foil as a resist. Perhaps plastic wrap and then dry fiberglass cloth.

The WOF dome worked fine for me, though I will say it requires a lot of patience to cut the things out precisely, and then bending and gluing them. The shapes are such that as long as you join them all up, you'll end up with the right shape regardless.

Regarding the + on top, I didn't end up using it. It served as a guide for the first 1/3 of the dome, after that I just took it out and did the rest freehand. My head's too big and wouldn't fit with it in anyway.

Regarding the glassing, I think you're saying you want to layer the glassing on the inside? Sounds more difficult the more ribs you put in, you'll end up having to work around the ribs. Unless you put the ribs in after glassing, but if you've already glassed the dome, I don't think the ribs will end up being necessary anyway. I'm just guessing here, I'll go get some expert help in a couple of weeks on glassing my own dome.

If you think that's too hard, you can do what some others have done and cut up a batting helmet, or any kind of cheap helmet really. There's pictures somewhere, I think in WOF's template thread. You'll need to fill in the gaps with sintra or whatever else you decide to use. I've no experience with that so I'm sticking with my paper dome for now. But I'm thinking of looking into a BMX helmet for my next one.

I began with the templates and a single sheet of posterboard today, mainly to see if I need to resize my bucket. It turns out that I have to resize the templates to cover up my jawline.

Does using two (or even three) layers of posterboard hold up against the fiberglass? I am worried about warping, as my mock up is a little flimsy, and am resonably sure I will end up with a mess. I don't care how many times I have to sand, to make a good finish.